A man in Sweden has died after trying to have sex with a hornet's nest on his farm outside Ystad.

The 35-year-old, known only as Hasse, had 146 sting marks on his body, including 54 to his genitals, News Sweden said.

His body was found by a neighbour, who said Hasse was so swollen he initially mistook him for a whale carcass.

Hasse was unconscious when he was found but died an hour later from the injuries he sustained.

Neighbour Bertil Ståhfrääs said he called over to his neighbour to ask what he was doing: "At first [I thought he was lying there by] of choice, so I called 'Hasse' to ask what the hell he was doing.

"I walked up to the body and then I recognised his tattoo on his neck.

"I have never in my life seen such a swollen pelvic bone. It hid the whole package [and] the scrotum was enlarged. Right now it feels heavy and unreal. We did not talk very often, but he was still my neighbour."

An autopsy of Hasse's body showed semen on some of the dead wasps and a number of the victim's pubic hair was found at the entrance of the nest. His fingerprints were also found on the nest, leading the police to believe he had been trying to have sex with the hornet's nest when he was stung to death.

"To attempt to have intercourse with a hornet's nest is a very bad idea," Siv During Livh, a psychologist and expert on sex fantasies told the news website.

"I don't even think about the pain he must have suffered both within himself [from his fetish] and incurred by the wasp attack."

Hornet stings are more painful than typical wasp stings because of their venom. They can also sting multiple times.

The stings are not normally fatal to humans unless a person is allergic to their venom, in which case they can go into anaphylactic shock.